Challenge accepted

“Though you used your competitive advantages to survive the single greatest economic downturn we’ve had in 80 years, those are not the same competitive advantages that are going to carry you successfully into the future. You’re going to have to do some other things, better than you’ve ever done before, in order to survive and thrive.” Charlie Hall, Ellison Chair in International Floriculture at Texas A&M University, imparted this wisdom in the opening presentation of the inaugural Uncensored meeting — a gathering of nearly 60 greenhouse and nursery growers, GIE Media Horticulture Group staff and event sponsors — this past September.

When it comes down to it, those who do not learn from tough times and adapt are doomed to repeat the same mistakes in the future (wasn’t there a saying about that, too?), even if right now it seems like smooth sailing. During the roundtable discussions and networking events, we heard many stories of how different growers have overcome adversity and found success, even in difficult economic times.

“Sometimes the major challenges that you think are going to be the death of you are the birth of something new,” Tony Van Oort of the Canadian company Qualitree shared during my table’s session about production realities. (Check out page 30 for more quoteable moments.) While he was referring to the changes the nursery made and subsequent success they found after they had a disease outbreak, these words can refer to most situations in any business. For example, when greenhouse growers started to have major problems with impatiens downy mildew, many chose to reduce production of that crop and focus energy into expanding their offering of similarly grown plants, like begonias. In fact, that was the whole idea behind Uncensored, to address major challenges for growers and come up with new ideas, share innovative solutions and develop new relationships.

In this issue, we bring you insights from the event as well as information to help you solve some of the most common problems we heard about at the event related to marketing, shipping, labor and more.

Karen E. Varga, Editor

kvarga@gie.net

216-393-0290 | Twitter: @Karen_GIE